Loaded Forbears
A series of vignettes, in which many animals were harmed in the making of this chapter. They were corrupted by demonic taint though, so that's ok.

-3-

Thunderball

Aim. Fire. Reload. Aim. Fire. Reload. Yell at senior:

"Vrom! We're under attack by Khazra!"

Another boom announced the approach of more attackers from the west. Valla counted the attackers; there were at least twenty visible in the pale moonlight, and goodness knew how many more lay in wait in the shadows.

"Vrom!" she repeated, taking aim and firing a volley of shots. There were cries of pain, and a few of the goat-men fell, but the rest continued advancing. Vrom was now beside her, but he was not attacking, just watching the enemy advance intently as if waiting for something. Right on cue, there was another explosion as an unfortunate khazra warrior triggered another spike trap and was blown into meaty chunks.

"I knew I should have put out more traps," Valla heard Vrom mutter at last. "They are going to get through."

She briefly wondered what her companion was up to, but no time for that now. She continued firing, taking down another two. But they kept coming, and more joined what was left of the original twenty.

"A little help?" she asked weakly, annoyed that the other hunter appeared to be doing nothing. Valla had never been on a mission or seen Vrom fight until the skirmish with the bandits occurred, but she knew that he could; all demon hunters could, and any veteran demon hunter who had attained the rank of Grandmaster was especially expected to be a force to reckon with in battle. There was no room for the weak in the organisation.

Therefore she was taken aback when instead of choosing to join her on the defense, Vrom turned around and dashed into his wagon without saying a word.

"What are you doing?" she called out, but no answer was forthcoming. Seething in anger, Valla turned back to face in the incoming horde, reflecting that master hunters were apparently extremely overrated. She was more than capable of taking care of the situation herself anyway.

Or at least, that was what she had thought until the wave of beasts arrived. They were massive, and the roars were a little chilling even to a trained warrior such as herself.

With a particularly bloodcurdling snarl, one of the monsters charged towards the wagon and the tethered horses, but abruptly stopped and remained rooted to the spot. Another one of Vrom's traps, his special variant of shadow-infused caltrops, had evidently activated.

Now that it was close, Valla could see the massive beast was almost cow-like but far more savage-looking. Unhesitatingly, she filled its head with bolts, and watched as the beast crashed to the ground, twitching.

She did not have long to spend watching, for another blood-curdling roar announced the charge of another of the beasts. The ground trembled as she whirled around, firing shot after shot, but the moving target and thick hide prevented any of them striking anywhere critical.

There was no way she would be able to take it down before it reached her.

Cursing, she leapt to the side, just as a disc-like projectile flashed though the air and entwined itself around the creature's wicked-looking horns. Valla had just enough time to to take in what it was— an explosive bola, before the warning bells in her mind sounded and she turned her dodge into a desperate cartwheel to get out of range.

There was a muffled explosion behind her, and then the smell of something rather similar to roast beef filled the air. Even before she had landed on her feet, Valla knew that the beast she had been fighting was no longer a threat.

"I was beginning to wonder if you were planning to do anything at all," she said to Vrom, who had in his hands a massive crossbow and was in the midst of reloading it with a fresh pair of bola shots.

"I was making preparations, girl. Mindlessly jumping into the fray and shooting at anything that moves will not turn out well every single time," retorted her senior. Despite his snapping at her however, she noticed he was rather slow at reloading- the oversized gauntlet he wore was definitely a hindrance to his dexterity. Vrom had just managed to load the weapon when the unmistakable rat-tat of his sentry traps going off added to the sounds of the night.

"They're coming from behind us!"

"Of course they are. They're goatmen but they're not stupid. Something or someone is guiding their actions," he paused his speech for a moment to take aim and blow up another of the giant beasts. "The sentries will take care of the ones in the back. How many bolts do you have left?"

"Twelve."

"Did Josen teach you that skill we learned from the Amazon tribes, the one which splinters bolts into multiple—"

"—shots," Valla finished for him as she fired, concentrating hard an the specifics of the imported magic. The storm of deadly splinters that tore through the ranks of khazra shortly after served as her answer.

"You're still going to run out," Vrom, pointed out. "Take mine when you're done." He fired one last shot and blew up the remaining Savage beast, before setting down his massive crossbow and a bundle of bolas. "Never liked using those things anyway," he added under his breath, before brandishing a twin set of chakram.

The bladed metal rings, as though guided by an unseen hand, whirled though the air, cutting down foe after foe with frightening efficiency. Guided by Vrom's channeled shadow magic, they would slice their way through the enemy ranks before finding a way to return to him, only to be thrown again.

Finally running out of bolts, Valla scooped up Vrom's crossbow and loaded it. Before she could pick a target however, there was a shout from her companion.

"Over there, behind those trees. Bastard in a robe!"

Sure enough, partially hidden from their sight,was an shady robed figure who seemed to be directing the khazra forces. Even as she turned, Valla saw Vrom's twin chakram travel towards the man, but the deadly flying rings were foiled by the tree which were in the way, shielding the man.

Valla blinked and corrected herself. No, the trees had in fact moved from their original positions and taken the hit for the mysterious figure. She heard Vrom's cursing as the chakram remained embedded in the wood and did not return to him, depriving him of his weapons. Her own bola shot suffered the same fate, intercepted by the trees, and only doing superficial damage.

"Valla, use the blue ones!"

Blue ones? Valla quickly scanned the bundle of bolas, and noticed that there were a few that were marked with blue cord. Red was for explosive, of course, but she'd never seen blue before. No time to ask what it did; a quick load-and- fire later, the projectile was making its way towards her target. Again, the trees blocked the attack, and the bolas ended up tangled around the branch-arms. Then the explosion triggered.

Vallas was expecting an explosion. She got an explosion… of sorts. What she was not expecting from that particular explosion was the sheer brilliance of the blinding light and the arcing electricity that spewed up in every direction, including that of the figure hiding behind the trees. There was a shriek as the bolts travelled through the air and hit their quarry, who finally crumpled onto the ground, stunned. The trees stopped moving and became still again, as though they had been his puppets and the strings had been cut.

There was an extremely undignified whoop of joy from Vrom at this. The khazra, seeing their controller cut down, halted their attack and began a frantic retreat. Many more fell as they fled, finding their deaths from Valla's bola shots and Vrom's throwing knives.

When it was all over, they stood in the middle of a field of dead. Vrom walked over to the stunned leader and kicked him over. "Alive. Well, he's not going to be too happy when he wakes up."

"What was that blue bola thing?" Vallas asked him as he secured their prisoner. She fingered the massive crossbow lovingly. It was rather growing on her.

"That? Oh it's my new invention. I call it Thunderball." He immediately started prattling about how he had gotten the idea and how he had managed to execute the construction and such.

It was boring talk, but an idea crossed Valla's mind as he droned on. "It is a fantastic innovation. Absolutely the work of genius," she gushed as soon as he stopped for breath. "You should put it through its paces more."

Her words had the desired effect. "If you like it so much, why don't you hang on to it and test it for me?" Vrom replied magnanimously, his chest puffed out with pride.

Valla hid her smile at the ease of it as she slung her newly acquired crossbow over her back. It should not be forgotten that she too, was Josen's student, and had so learned a thing or two from him.

Phalanx's notes: Well this was as far as I got with this story. I'm not sure if I'll continue it, because if there is one thing I hate it's recapping canon. And I did have a XCOM/Diablo crossover in mind instead. Still, I might make it a collection of short stories without following canon chronological order, which might make it more interesting.